Immunogenic cell death is a form of cell death or apoptosis. Unlike traditional apoptosis, which is mostly non-immunogenic, immunogenic cell death in cancer cells can induce an effective anti-tumor immune response through the activation of dendritic cells. The pre-apoptotic state is defined as the state before the activation of Caspase 3/7, the manifestation of cell apoptosis. Immunogenic cell death is characterized by the expression of pre-apoptotic damage-associated-molecular-patterns (DAMPs) on the surface of a dying cell. There are three important pre-apoptotic DAMPs which are exposed to the cell surface during immunogenic cell death: calreticulin (CRT), HSP70 and HSP90. These three pre-apoptotic DAMP signals play an important role in dendritic cell recruitment and cell phagocytosis by CRT and dendritic cell maturation/activation by HSP70 and HSP90, resulting in effective anti-tumor immune response. Selected forms of chemotherapy and radiotherapy can induce collateral immunogenic cell death. While these therapies can induce one or two of the three pre-apoptotic DAMP signals, they do not induce the expression of all three pre-apoptotic DAMP signals. Furthermore, chemotherapy and radiotherapy are immunosuppressive therapies, which reduce numbers of lymphocytes and also cause collateral damages to surrounding non-tumor cells, resulting in poor anti-tumor immune responses and also adverse events respectively.
There is a need for compositions that induce immunogenic cell death with increased efficiency and potency by inducing the expression of all three pre-apoptotic DAMP signals, while minimizing adverse effects. The present disclosure addresses this need.